Plenty In Store For Hartford

Six Pillars Seen As Key To Revitalization

This was the week when all the people who hope to revitalize Connecticut's poorest city began trying to pick up the pieces left by the sudden detonation of the Patriots deal.

The immediate issue is whether lawmakers will agree to allow $100 million in surplus previously earmarked for the NFL stadium to be spent on Hartford development. If they do, the question becomes whether that money will be spent on a combined convention center- stadium ``megaplex'' project at Adriaen's Landing, or in Hartford's neighborhoods.

With the Patriots deal dead, attention has begun to return to the $300 million ``Six Pillars'' urban development program the legislature approved last year. The quasi-public Capital City Economic Development Authority is charged with carrying that plan out.

Friday, the state development authority's chairman, Arthur T. Anderson, and its executive director, Brendan M. Fox Jr., spoke at length about how they hope to move the Six Pillars agenda forward in the aftermath of the Patriots pull-out. The Six Pillars are: a revitalized Hartford Civic Center mall; the megaplex; helping to complete the Riverfront Recapture park system; new housing downtown and rehabilitation and demolition of old housing in the neighborhoods; a downtown community college campus; and 5,000 new parking spaces.

With the exception of Gov. John G. Rowland, no one was closer to the Patriots stadium effort than Fox and Anderson. The shock of Robert K. Kraft's April 30 decision had not completely worn off -- both men said they were convinced, up until the moment they got the telephone call saying the deal was dead, that the Patriots were coming to Hartford.

The development authority's goal now is to have a megaplex ready to host University of Connecticut football games and conventions by 2002, the same time the Patriots had been due to start playing in Hartford.

Before that happens, however, huge questions need to be answered: Does the steam plant still need to be moved for a smaller, UConn dome? Will environmental testing -- the first lab results are due at the end of next week -- prove or disprove Kraft's fears? Can the corporate backer of Adriaen's Landing, Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co., find developers and investors to build shopping, entertainment and housing at Adriaen's Landing?

Q: Kraft is gone. What's the relative health of the Six Pillars in the aftermath of the Patriots situation?

Anderson: Fine. The Six Pillars were never about a stadium, or a thing, or a team. The Six Pillars were about a number of steps to rejuvenate the city.

Fox: One thing that got lost in the work of trying to put everything together for the stadium were the efforts that have been made to date and continue to be made on the . . . Six Pillars, including the Civic Center, the downtown higher education center, housing, riverfront infrastructure and parking and a convention center. . . . The decision made by the Patriots not to participate in Adriaen's Landing, I don't think will have any impact on the health of any of the . . . Six Pillars.

Q: Why do you think Kraft pulled the plug? Were you surprised when it happened?

Anderson: I was surprised. I think it was more of a personal decision on his part. That's the only way I can explain it.

Fox: I was absolutely shocked, to tell you the truth. . . . Kraft was attracted to Hartford because of our efforts to revitalize the city. He didn't come down until after the [Six Pillars] legislation was passed. It wasn't a decision [to back out of the deal] made by him based on Adriaen's Landing or the Civic Center. I think he received an immense, intense amount of pressure.

Anderson (completing sentence): From his hometown, and I think that's the personal decision, it was his hometown. . . . I don't think any of us believes there are insurmountable environmental or insurmountable structural issues [in building the stadium]. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be, but all the evidence to date shows that there wasn't.

Q: What do you think is the most serious damage Kraft's decision has inflicted on Hartford? How will it be overcome?

Anderson: I think the main damage is psychological. Also, though, I think the economic push that the stadium would undoubtedly have brought to the city of Hartford is not going to be there instantaneously, because a UConn stadium won't have those kinds of crowds immediately.

[The damage] is going to be overcome by showing progress and showing incremental steps, developing the pillars. . . . It's going to be overcome the same way it was envisioned to be overcome before the Patriots were even in the picture.